For years, doctors told us that
setting boundaries in our life is a priority for our soul - our mind, choices
and emotions. I still believe this, because it is a necessary discipline in my
life.
I never realized, however, that
setting boundaries is also a spiritual necessity for our spirit's health and
well-being. Boundaries put walls between our self and our abusers - mental,
physical, emotional, spiritual and financial.
We stop enabling other people by
allowing them to use and abuse us, and we make them rethink their habit of
over-dependence on and ingratitude toward significant others in their life.
Working to make people happy is
no longer important to us, because we realize that their only true joy comes
from Christ in them. We stop rescuing them from the consequences of their
choices and behavior.
Once we develop the habit of
walking in God's Spirit, we gain more strength to say "No" to our
abusers, even if this strains our relationship with them.
We allow them to pay their own
penalty of their chosen lifestyle and to suffer the results of their own way of
life. This casts them on the Lord for their salvation, once they finally realize
their utter depravity without Him.
We relinquish the outcome of
their life to God, and we trust that in their brokenness they will cry out to
Him for their deliverance. We spend our time in worship, gratitude and
thanksgiving to our loving God who works out everything for our benefit.
Learning to live in a positive
lifestyle changes our health in body, soul and spirit, and causes the
significant others in our life to turn to Jesus for their sustenance
(Philippians 4:4-13).
Prayer:
Father God, allow Your peace to
guard our heart and mind (Philippians 4:7), until we are able to think about
and speak only positive thoughts and emotions (Philippians 4:8). Help us to shed
the negative effects of anxiety, resentment, disappointment, and living in
melancholy spirals over the injustice and inconvenience of certain situations
in our life.
Help us to focus on the fact that
we abide in Your Kingdom, not in this wicked and dangerous world. Remind us
that You yoke us with Jesus and graft us into His Vine to receive His help in
pulling our load in life and to securely receive our nourishment from His
wisdom and provision.
Thought for the Day:
God teaches us
to acknowledge our negative thoughts and emotions, allowing our soul to grieve
over our losses, seek Him for the source of the subconscious memories that
cause some of them, reject Satan's lies which often fuel them, and distance our
self with boundaries from those who currently perpetrate those lies in our
life.
